Battle of Carabobo

By 1821 Venezuelan independence had survived years of defeat, and a truce with Spain broke down in the spring. Bolivar gathered his scattered forces, including Jose Antonio Paez's llaneros, and advanced on the Spanish army of Miguel de la Torre, which held a strong position on the plain of Carabobo. Instead of attacking head-on, Paez led a battalion and the British Legion in a flanking move through rough ground, where they came under heavy fire. The royalist line broke when the patriot cavalry charged, and the Spanish army was routed. Bolivar entered Caracas on 29 June, and Spain was left holding only a few coastal bases in Venezuela.

Accounts differ over how important the British Legion really was, and Venezuelan memory in the nineteenth century lifted Paez's role while Bolivar's own dispatches stress his plan. The victory is considered the decisive battle of Venezuelan independence, though Spanish resistance at Puerto Cabello and Maracaibo lasted until 1823. Historians also note the political cost, since Paez's prestige from this day fed rivalries that later helped split Gran Colombia.